Press Release Article

PORT AUTHORITY OFFICERS PARTICIPATING IN SATURDAY’S ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE IN NEW YORK

Date: Mar 15, 2002Press Release Number: 21-2002

The Port Authority Police Pipes and Drums Band – which lost three of its 25 members on September 11 – will take part in Saturday’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Leading the band will be band manager Fred Morrone, the cousin of Fred V. Morrone, the former Port Authority Superintendent of Police/Director of Public Safety, who was killed on September 11.

In all, 37 Port Authority Police officers and commanders were killed on September 11 – the largest one-day loss of life suffered by any police department in U.S. history.Chief Joseph Morris, the Port Authority’s Acting Superintendent of Police, is serving as one of the parade’s grand marshals.“With each step along the parade route, our thoughts and hearts will be filled with the memories of our 37 fallen comrades and the 38 civilian members of the Port Authority family,” Chief Morris said. “Their spirit lives on with us every day that our 1,300 officers and commanders put their lives on the line at the Port Authority’s airports, PATH stations, ports and bridges and tunnels and terminals.”

The Pipes and Drums Band, which was established in 1979, performed at all 37 officers’ and commanders’ memorial services in New York and New Jersey, as well as some of the funeral services.Band members Richard Rodriguez, Liam Callahan and Steven Huczko – all of them Port Authority Police officers – also died September 11.

Editor’s note: Members of the Port Authority Police Pipes and Drums Band are available for interviews. To schedule an interview, please contact Dan Bledsoe at 212 435-7777.